t
•
December 30, 1987, Portland Observer, Page 7
Nipping Prejudice in the Bud
Perspectives
by Professor McKinley Burt
fifth graders said children are teased
immune to prejudice, the seeds for
Imagine a school classroom
about the color of their skin; 31
prejudice are sown at an early age,
where children are divided into
percent said children are teased
prior even to children starting
groups according to the color of
about their religion.
school.
their eyes or hair. They are told
Although the teachers interview
The handbook emphasizes the
that those with blue eyes may not
speaking of a trillion dollars.
ed were usually aware of problems,
important
role
teachers
can
play
in
speak to children from the other
Now, let us look at the automa
many did not know how to initiate
reducing the formation and growth
groups, may not play with them or
tic lubricator patented by Elijah
discussion about them. All were in
of
prejudicial
attitudes
by
challeng
assist anyone except from their own
McCoy, July 18, 1882 (no. 261,166).
terested in activities that would help
ing many of the stereotypes to
group.
Before this invention, by a son of
children understand the differences
which children are exposed.
In another classroom, a child is
slaves, all moving machinery had to
among them and show more toler
The
aims
of
the
book
are
to
help
asked to describe his feelings about
be frequently stopped for lubrica
ance for others. The majority also
children:
a good friend . . . why they are
tion. In authentic western movies,
agreed they would like to spend
• Understand such concepts as
friends, what the person is like,
you see train passengers walking
more time on citizenship issues.
prejudice, discrimination and stereo
positive characteristics and so forth.
around while the crew oils the loco
The manual deals with such
typing;
Then the child is asked to look at his
motive parts. In the early Charlie
topics
as learning about prejudice,
• Examine their own and other
friend through a large magnifying
Chaplin movie, “ Modern Times",
discrimination
against the disabled,
people's treatment of people who
glass covered with colored cello
you see him prancing around with an
race
and
ethnicity,
religion, differ
are different;
phane and describe how the friend
oversized oil can, lubricating the
ences
in
life-style
and
the influence
• Be better able to analyze and
has changed. The obvious answer
machinery (Obviously, the airplane
of
gender
on
how
children are
reflect on their own feelings, there
is that the friend has changed color.
would have been impossible since
treated.
by differentiating between reason
But does this change the child's
it could not be stopped to lubricate
In the section on learning about
able dislikes or caution and pre
feeling about the friend or what his
the engines ). Within a few years
prejudice, tests are suggested to
judice;
friend is really like?
after introduction of this device,
help youngsters make value judge
• Gain an awareness and enjoy
These are just two of the exer
most factories and railroads speci
ments regarding things they know
ment of diversity in our society;
cises for fighting prejudice in a new
fied that all their machinery be
little about. They are made aware
• Act in ways that are nondis-
manual for use in elementary
equipped with a Real McCoy Lu
of the difference between disliking
criminatory.
schools, being distributed by the
bricator. A Black man's name had
someone or being prejudiced
Some activities are appropriate
Anti-Defamation League.
become part of colloquial English.
against them. For example, it is
for kindergarten and primary grade
Entitled "Teacher, they called me
What is suggested here is that
natural to dislike someone who is
children while others are for more
a ________ I" the book gives
there has been a gross failure on the
mean to you. On the other hand,
cognitively sophisticated elemen
teachers more than 60 classroom
part of Blacks and leaders alike to
a prejudiced person may decide that
tary school children.
activities and down-to-earth ap
(1) appreciate their own genius and
everyone who looks like the mean
In preparing the book, 101 ele
proaches for counteracting preju
capacity to create wealth, whether
person must also be mean. The
mentary school children were selec
dice and discrimination against
formally educated or not, and to
manual also points out that some
ted to be interviewed, half from a
children.
(2) reach a level of cooperative ef
kinds of prejudice — such as being
rural area and the other from a sub
The work, originally prepared for
fort which would permit the building
skeptical of strangers who offer
urban Salt Lake City community.
the Utah State Office of Education
of financial institutions for the sup
presents or favors — may be accep
Third and fifth graders were asked
and published as a book by ADL
port of business and industrial spin
table.
individually to respond to questions
was written by Dr. Deborah A.
To effectively fight racial and eth
offs.
about what it means to be an Ameri
Byrnes of the Department of Ele
More on this in later articles.
nic
prejudice, the book explains the
can, about their views of different
mentary Education of Utah State
In any case, the next time you
reasons
for differences in the color
ethnic, racial and religious groups,
Univeristy. Dr. Byrnes interviewed
shut the sliding door on your van,
of
hair,
skin
and eyes.
how they learned about each speci
both teachers and students to deter
remember that this locking mechan
In
the
“ discrimination simu
fic group and whether they knew
mine the issues to be addressed.
ism was invented by a Benson High
lation,"
where
a class is divided into
anyone who belonged to such
The book's introduction notes
School Black graduate, Don Ruth
minority groups. They were also
See "Prejudice", Page 10
that, although adults in America
erford, June 8, 1954, Patent No.
questioned
about
reasons
that
society like to believe children are
2,680,268.
children tease each other and why
some children are excluded from
group play.
First graders were shown 10 pic
tures of boys and girls from five
different racial or ethnic groups -
Black American, Mexican Ameri
can, Native American, Asian Ameri
can and Anglo American. They
Except for short breaks over
were asked with which child they
Christmas
and on New Year's Day,
would most like to play, using an
winter
term
registration at Portland
elimination process so that all but
Community
College will continue
one was selected. They were also
through
January
8, college officials
questioned about the teasing of dif
ferent ethnic and racial groups and have announced.
Prospective students can sign up
about their knowledge of religious
at
all campuses and centers during
groups and about what in general
open
registration December 21-23,
children tease each other.
December
29-31, January 2 and du
Eighty-five percent of the first
graders interviewed said children ring late registration period Janu
are teased about the way they look ary 4-8.
Registration will be from 9 a.m.
— the most frequent examples re
Kelvin Little, 4 years old (L). and Etrece' Brazzle (R) were
lated to weight, clothes, hair and to 4 p.m. except December 30
among 23 children from the Woodlawn Center of AM A Head
skin color.
Seventy-one percent and January 4-7 when hours will be
start that visited Commissioner Pauline Anderson. The children
said children are teased about what extended to 8 p.m , and January 8
presented Anderson with a poster and a plaque in appreciation
church they attend - such as call when offices will be open until
of her visit to their center.
Photo by Richard J. Brown
ing a particular church "dumb' or 5p.m.
PCC is offering nearly 5000 winter
"bad" or claiming to be better than
someone who attends a different classes during the term that begins
the week of January 4.
church.
Seventy-six percent of third and
Technology: Old MacDonald Had A Farm
“ Old MacDonald had a farm and
on this farm he had some
ducks . . . "
And old Jefferson
Davis, 'Father of the Confederacy',
had a plantation and on this planta
tion he had some slaves. One was
quite an inventor, designing a boat
propeller which increased the speed
by many miles an hour. Now, what
we cannot learn from that old folk
song is about the many Black con
tributors to the Industrial Revolution
— or about hamburgers. However,
from an Arno Press monograph
(New York Times Publishing Co.),
and from Commager's "Documents
of American History” (public li
brary), we can learn of this inven
tion and its consequences for the
legal structure of the Confederate
States.
TECHNOLOGY
When Jefferson Davis tried to
patent this invention of a slave, the
Attorney General of the United
States made the final ruling that
Davis could not acquire rights in this
invention, because a slave had no
rights w h ich m ig h t be acquired.
This setback caused the first pre
sident of the Confederacy to initiate
an interesting chain of events. Ex
amining the Constitution of the
Confederate States of America, we
find in Article I, Section 8, that “ The
Congress shall have the power . . .
(8) To promote the progress of sci
ence and useful arts by securing for
limited times to authors and inven
tors the exclusive rights to their re
spective writings and discoveries."
Davis followed on most imme-
diately with another pet piece of
legislation by having passed a law
specifying that “ all in ventions of
slaves shall become the property
of the m a ster". Shocking (and re
vealing), but there is an even more
startling analysis to be made. If
we evaluate the economic benefit to
Black people created by their thou
sands of inventions (patented)
from emancipation to the space age
- for all practical purposes they
might just as well have been inno
vated during slavery.
Given the basic importance of
many of these inventions to the In
dustrial Revolution, we might have
expected a corresponding increase
of some magnitude in Black wealth
other than wages — and certainly
we would expect to see a signifi
cant involvement in the manufac
ture and distribution of goods. So
cial and economic data for the
period reveal nothing of the kind.
To make my point, I cite these
two major inventions:
Frederick
McKinley Jones patented the re fri
gerated tru c k , July 12, 1949 (no.
2,475,841), and the refrigerated
box car, December 7, 1954 (No.
2,696,086). The marketing and food
consumption habits of an entire na
tion were changed as the inexpen
sive transportation of fresh or frozen
foods developed around the innova
tion of a Black sixth-grade dropout.
Jones' invention created tens-of-
billions of wealth in citrus and other
crops, in transportation industries,
in meatpacking, and in California
and Florida real estate. World wide,
over these forty years, we may be
Scholarships For
Minorities Available
PCC Registration
Continues
Through
January 8
Pre-schoolers Visit
Multnomah County Court
Two scholarships for Black nurses are available through the Nurses'
Educational Funds, Inc. (NEF) for the 1988 89 academic year. The awards,
for registered nurses enrolled in masters or doctoral degree programs, recog
nize outstanding scholastic achievement and potential for leadership in the
nursing profession.
The Estelle MasSey Osborne Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a Black
registered nurse who is pursuing a masters
degree in nursing at a National League for
Nursing accredited school. The award is made
in honor of Ms. Osborne, the first Black nurse
irrth e United States to receive a masters degree. The award is made in
memory of her contribution as a teacher, as an educational administrator
as a nursing service administrator, as a public health nurse, as a writer, and
EDUCATION
as a leader and role model to Black nurses.
The M Elizabeth Carnegie Scholarship is awarded to a Black registered
nurse who is pursuing a doctoral degree in nursing or in a related field. The
award was initiated by Dr. Carnegie, a member of NEF s Board of Directors,
in 1981 to recognize Black nurses who were pursuing advanced degrees.
Dr. Carnegie is currently serving as the first visiting professor of the Vera E.
Bender Endowed Chair in Nursing at Adelphi University, Garden
She is the author of "The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing 1854 1984,
as well as other articles on nursing education and Blacks in nursing.
Those applying for either the Osborne or Carnegie scholarships must
also be: a U S. citizen or have declared their official intention of becoming
one, and a member of a national professional nursing association.
The next time monies are available from the Nurses' Educational Funds,
Inc is for the 1988 89 academic year, beginning September 1988. Qualified
applicants should send a $3.00 check to NEF to cover postage and handling
of the application kit. Deadline for filing the completed application is
March 1, 1988. Write: Nurses' Educational Funds, Inc., 555 West 57 Street,
New York, NY 10019.
The Nurses' Educational Funds, Inc., is the only non government, in-
dependenl sou.ee of funds fo. graduate education in nursing Orrgrna»»
established in 1911 as the Isabel Hampton Robb Memorial Scholarship, NE
has given away more than $1 million over the years to hundreds of nurses
who have gone on to become leaders in research, education, administration
Golden Age Program Offers
Senior Privileges
Residents of the Mt. Hood Com
munity College District who are at
least 62 years of age are eligible
for special privileges, including free
tuition, through the college's Gol
den Age program. Husband and
wife may both apply if one is at
least 62 years of age.
Close to 3,000 residents now take
advantage of what the program
offers. In addition to free tuition,
members also are entitled to re
duced admission to the MHCC
Aquatic Center for use of swimming
and hydrotherapy pools, free use of
the library and student admission to
all college events and activities. If
a class requires service or material
fees, such as supplies for an art
class, they must be paid by the stu
dent.
Residents may apply for the Gol
den Age program by contacting the
MHCC community services offices
at 667-7449.
and outstanding practitioners, as well.
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Chuck Hinton’s
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